Construction Workers To Call On LA Developer To Use ‘Ethical Contractors’

402159 09: A construction worker wears a patriotic hardhat while working on decorative metal work March 12, 2002 located at the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles, CA. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan announced last week that an economic expansion was already "well under way,'''' in effect, declaring that the U.S. economic downturn was over. The mall is scheduled to open March 16, 2002 to the public. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

(credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Construction workers including Latino immigrants and their supporters Thursday were expected to rally outside the offices of a Los Angeles developer to call on the firm to provide safer conditions to workers.

Local safety advocates claim Vancouver-based Holland Partner Group – which has multiple construction projects in LA County – has previously used a contractor that has been cited by OSHA for numerous violations, including lack of a safety harness for a worker five stories high, according to labor and faith coalition leaders.

Coalition spokesperson Chloe Osmer of AFL-CIO alleges workers at Millennium Reinforcing are subjected to numerous abuses including poor safety and working conditions, unpaid overtime, and 14-hour days. A number of workers have been on strike in California protesting their working conditions, verbal abuse and mistreatment from the company.

Advocates want Holland Partner Group – the developer behind a major mixed use development on 6th Street between Lucas Avenue and Bixel Street and other projects in downtown LA – to use “ethical contractors that provide safe conditions to workers”, according to Osmer.

Nearly 750 Latino workers were killed from work-related injuries in 2012, averaging more than 14 deaths per week or two deaths every single day of the year, according data provided by the coalition.